This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
How can an accountant build trust in a tax service for digital nomads? That is today's listener question. We're gonna help an accountant scale her international tax service. And the goal here is to establish credibility, stay on top of regulations, grow with confidence. Why are we talking about this?
Because we like to help people out there start or grow their side hustle or their small business, whatever your idea is. There are universal lessons that we can apply across lots of different case studies and scenarios. So in this case, this person wants to start this service to help digital nomads, remote workers, people who are traveling around the world and still working for a customer or client back at home, or maybe they are freelancing, and then they have tax issues. This accountant has an idea to work specifically with this target market, but she's trying to figure out how to get going and scale it. She says, "I think there's somebody out there who can help, but I don't know who to ask.
Let's see what we can do. Her name is Jennifer, her detailed question and my answer coming right up." [Music]
Hi there, my name is Jennifer. I'm an accountant and I want to help digital nomads navigate taxes across multiple countries. But my challenges are building trust with clients who are hesitant to share financial information and ensuring compliance with rapidly changing international tax laws. How can I position myself as a trusted expert and scale this small service?
I feel like there's someone who can help, but I don't know who to ask. - Jennifer, I think you need some kind of introduction into this community, especially if you aren't part of the community. There are different places people go. There are different networks where digital nomads kind of connect. Sometimes there are Reddit groups or subreddits, I should say, Facebook groups.
There's also some private communities that people pay for. And so you kind of need an in. You need somebody who's like, "Hey, this is Jennifer, she can help us. She is specializing and she has actually helped me." In fact, that would be the best, would be somebody who has a testimonial on your behalf. And that's how you position yourself.
But if you are just starting from scratch, I would say you build trust by showcasing your expertise. You highlight your qualifications. You make it easy for clients to verify. You can start publishing educational content either on social media or on a blog, or maybe a YouTube channel might actually be best considering this space. And then I mentioned the subreddits.
Digital Nomad is one, like go to Reddit and search Digital Nomad. There's also some professional groups you might wanna join. Global Mobility Tax Network, International Fiscal Association, accountants probably know more about that than I do. I just tend to know more about the Digital Nomad side. Then maybe one more idea is if you could do a course, if you could teach a course, not just take a course, but if you could teach a course on LinkedIn Learning or Udemy or a similar platform, that might actually help go a long way in terms of both establishing your authority, providing some of that educational content, and also just getting connected to these communities if you're not there already.
So I think your biggest problem is people in these communities need to know who you are. How will that happen? It's not gonna happen just magically or randomly. You will need some kind of introduction, or you need flagship content in the form of that kind of course, or something comparable that's going to help you reach the target market. Jennifer, thank you for the question.
Listeners, let me know what's on your mind, sidehustleschool.com/questions. We've got new episodes every day. Tomorrow I'm gonna tell you the story of a coffee wholesaler. I'm gonna talk about SEO after that. We've got Valentine's Day coming up.
We've got all kinds of stuff coming up on the podcast. You can always subscribe or follow for free. That's all for now. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.
[Music]
From the Onward Project.
